Elen Wyn says GPs laughed at her endometriosis concern

The Traitors contestant Elen Wyn has mentioned she was once laughed at by way of a GP and instructed she had a low ache threshold all over her 10-year look ahead to an endometriosis analysis.

Elen, from Anglesey, mentioned she suffered with ache that felt like “barbed cord round her abdomen” prior to her analysis, which she was once instructed was once “simply length pains”.

She added GPs had to deal with girls’s well being with higher sensitivity and known as for higher investment from the Welsh executive.

The Welsh executive mentioned it was once spending £3m on a girls’s well being hub in each and every well being board by way of March 2026.

The Traitors superstar, firstly from Llanfair-yng-Nghornwy in Anglesey – who was once eradicated on episode two – mentioned she was once recognized simply prior to showing at the fact display in 2024 – 10 years after her signs began.

Elen, now 24, mentioned when her classes started at 14, she often overlooked faculty and sat out of recreation, however a GP insisted she simply had a low ache tolerance.

She mentioned she was once introduced a contraceptive tablet, which is among the remedy choices to be had, if she was once in point of fact suffering, however she didn’t really feel pleased with this feature whilst no longer sexually lively.

She mentioned she persevered to undergo so badly she was once not able to stroll or go away the home.

“Every so often it is like you are being again and again stabbed,” she mentioned.

“I knew it wasn’t standard without reference to what I used to be instructed.”

She started to piece in combination that her signs intently aligned with endometriosis after seeing different victims on TikTok and, whilst finding out in Cardiff when she was once about 21, attempted once more to push for solutions from clinical pros.

“I noticed some other GP however he mentioned the similar, that my ache tolerance was once too low.

“I consider him guffawing at me, it was once terrible,” she mentioned.

Elen then asked to peer a feminine GP, who she mentioned “totally validated” her and agreed she can have endometriosis.

But if each an ultrasound and an MRI scan got here again transparent of the situation, Elen driven for a laparoscopy, and it was once best then that her degree 4 endometriosis was once detected.

The illness had unfold throughout Elen’s bowel, bladder, fallopian tubes and kidney and, whilst she is lately on a four-year ready checklist for surgical treatment, she has been the usage of her TikTok account to lift consciousness in regards to the situation.

Endometriosis is a gynaecological situation related to menstruation the place tissue very similar to the liner of the womb is located in different spaces of the frame, together with the fallopian tubes, pelvis, bowel, vagina and intestines.

In uncommon circumstances it has even been discovered within the lungs, eyes, backbone and mind. It was once as soon as idea that the one position within the frame the place endometriosis didn’t happen was once the spleen, however in 2020 it was once discovered there additionally.

Signs come with serious to debilitating ache continuously within the pelvic house, fatigue, and heavy classes, and the situation could also be related to infertility.

Analysis by way of charity Endometriosis UK discovered the typical analysis time for endometriosis in Wales was once 9 years and 11 months in 2024.

This was once the longest analysis time throughout the United Kingdom and had higher from 9 years in 2020.

Elen mentioned she was once given no give a boost to from her GP whilst she awaited her analysis, including: “I’ve been introduced the coil or the tablet, [but] rather then that I used to be given not anything which is so irritating.”

She mentioned via her personal analysis she had made adjustments to her way of life to control her situation, together with reducing down her alcohol and caffeine consumption in addition to attractive in minimal impact workout and prioritising sleep.

“I do not undergo just about up to I used to… [but] I’ve accomplished that every one alone,” she mentioned.

She added: “I believe a story must be erased right here. As a result of it is a situation related to feminine hormones, other people generally tend to hyperlink the indications with being dramatic and it is in point of fact irritating to me.

“There may be such a lot stigma round it and I believe that stigma must be deleted.”

Elen has known as at the Welsh executive to supply extra investment, higher data and bigger sensitivity to ladies’s well being.

“I believe GPs wish to spend extra time exploring signs and providing different answers slightly than simply the tablet or the coil, it is ridiculous,” she mentioned.

The Welsh executive mentioned endometriosis was once some of the 8 priorities defined in its Ladies’s Well being Plan for Wales.

“We now have already funded endometriosis nurses in each and every well being board, advanced the Endometriosis Cymru web site and supplied £50 million of extra investment to lend a hand minimize the longest ready instances, which contains gynaecological prerequisites,” it mentioned.

It added £3m can be used to ascertain a Ladies’s Well being Hub in each and every well being board by way of March 2026, “to give a boost to well timed analysis and control of menstrual prerequisites together with endometriosis”.